April, 2011

As first reported by MMADieHards, legendary hockey brawler Donald Brashear has signed a one-fight contract with the Canadian-based Ringside MMA promotion. No date or first opponent has been confirmed for his debut; Brashear had not applied for a fighting license as of Thursday, and Quebec’s sissy-ass gaming commission might put him under extra scrutiny because of an alleged assault incident that occurred at the end of a LNAH hockey game on March 25th. Brashear currently plays for the Rivière-du-Loup CIMT, whatever that is.

During his 1993-2010 stint as an enforcer in the NHL — during which he logged time for the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, and New York Rangers — Brashear racked up 2,634 penalty minutes, the 15th-highest penalty total in the history of the NHL. He also managed to record 85 goals and 125 assists when he wasn’t punching dudes’ teeth out.

(At that moment, Bader’s whole life flashed before his eyes, and the part about fighting Tito Ortiz at UFC 132 made him say, “No way, you gotta be shittin’ me!”)

Guess you have to give Ryan Bader partial credit for admitting to MMA Weekly on Friday that one of the reasons he wanted to fight Tito Ortiz was to erase from his mind the nightmarish memories of his UFC 126 fight with Jon Jones. On the other hand, we have to kinda call disingenuousness (aka bullshit) on the way Bader sort of tries to make it sound like this bout just fell into his lap (as we recall, he specifically called Ortiz out) and saying that he took the fight because he’s “an MMA fan” who just wanted to take on a legend. Check it out:

“Although it’s a step down in competition from Jon Jones and (Antonio Rogerio) Nogueira, I got a chance fight a guy like Tito, a legend of the sport, and we took it,” Bader said. “It’s almost like a novelty fight for me going in there and (fighting) a guy I grew up watching. I’m a fan and a fighter. I want to be a part of his legacy and vice versa. I want to have Tito Ortiz in my win column.”

We know they say that being in prison can screw with a man’s head and we know it’s hard to believe that War Machine could say, do or write anything stranger than he already has, but let’s just say what you’re about to read will likely make you ask, “What the fuck is wrong with this guy?”

(Visual proof that Jason Miller once fought Georges St. Pierre in the UFC, and did terribly.)

Former Strikeforce middleweight contender, MTV host, and man-about-town Jason Miller has signed a new multi-fight agreement with the UFC. MMAFighting first confirmed the news this afternoon with Miller’s manager, Ryan Parsons, and Mayhem himself later discussed the development via Twitter: “I now fight for the @UFC. I’d like to thank all the staff there as well as @DanaWhite for this new partnership. I really want to thank all of you for showing your support. Can’t wait to show my skills in the UFC’s octagon.”

Miller has actually competed for the UFC once before, in a welterweight bout against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 52 in April 2005; Mayhem got his ass whupped, lost a unanimous decision, and never competed at 170 pounds again.

After your 40,000+ votes eliminated all the blondes, foreigners, and blonde foreigners, we’re left with four semi-finalists in our quest to crown this year’s Hottest Woman in MMA — all of them belonging to that sub-species of hot chick known as the American Brunette. But which two will advance to the finals? Starting today, it is your obligation to determine just that.

Once again, the instructions are as follows: Cast a vote for your favorite MMA hottie in each of the two polls, with the help of the photographic evidence we’ve provided. (Hit the “next page” link when you’re done with Arianny vs. Mercedes.) If you don’t see the poll widget under each pairing of girls, please refresh your browser or try a different one. Any questions, let us know in the comments section. We’ll collect the results and announce the winners next week.

If you haven’t yet watched an Yves Jabouin fight and you aren’t going to UFC 129, we suggest you sign up for a Facebook account to catch the Montreal-based Haitian take on Pablo Garza in the event’s prelims next Saturday.

We had a chance recently to speak with the 10-year MMA veteran and we discussed a number of topics including his childhood, his long road to the Octagon, and losing out on a title shot to Mark Hominick.
Check out what “Tiger” had to say after the jump.

(“That’s a great question, Fabricio. Actually, Chuck and I have found that through careful investment research it’s possible to locate dependable mutual funds that can average as much as 12 percent annual growth over the long term.”)

Look, we gotta believe there are a limited number of fake jobs that Zuffa, LLC can possibly make up for aging former fighters as the company’s way of saying, “Thanks for getting punched in the head for so many years so Dana could buy a new Ferrari.” Chuck already has one, Matt Hughes obviously wants one and now MMA grandpa Randy Couture is making noise about wanting one too. Not for nothing, but if we were Liddell we might be getting a little nervous right now. I mean, if you could choose to have Couture as your phony Vice President of Business Development instead of THIS GUY, you’d do it in a heartbeat, right? Office politics can be a bitch that way.

Frank Mir thinks Alistair Overeem will suffer a similar fate as Mirko Cro Cop if and when he finally fights for the UFC.

Either Mir doesn’t know anything about Overeem or he’s trying to needle his way into a fight with the heavyweight Strikeforce, DREAM and K-1 champion when he transitions to the Octagon. Whatever his intentions are, it’s likely the only thing Mir will succeed in doing is pissing off “The Reem.”

Here’s what he had to say in a recent interview he did with MMA30′s Dave Farra:

“With all the guys with the wrestling ability I dont think Overeem will do as well as a lot of the fans would like him to do. Obviously the guy’s from from K-1 and I can’t say enough about his stand-up. He’s a great fighter and he has a pretty wicked guillotine — at least he did at light heavyweight he [did],” mir explained. “I haven’t really seen him establish it since he put the weight on. He has some submissions off his back and he moves around, but he’s been fighting in boxing rings and stuff, but going to fight in the cage, which he’s he’s had fights in cages, but you get someone like a Velasquez or Carwin or Brock, they’re going to change levels and push you against a cage and rip you down. So I think Overeem is going to have to deal with the cage now. When youre a striker, it’s an issue.”

They may have blocked us from having a booth at next weekend’s UFC Fan Expo, but that won’t stop us from trucking up to Toronto and hangin’ with our Canadian fans. If you’ll be in town for the UFC 129 festivities, we cordially invite you to the CagePotato.com UFC 129 ‘Banned’ Meetup Extravaganza (!), which goes down at Shoeless Joe’s (276 King St. West), next Thursday, April 28th, from 7-10 p.m.

While there will be many different parties and events happening around Toronto on Thursday night, ours is different in one very important way: OPEN FREAKIN’ BAR. That’s right, CagePotato will be covering beer, well drinks, and appetizers until our money runs out, so be sure to get there early. You’ll also get a “Free CagePotato” t-shirt (as supplies last), as long as you can look us directly in the eyes and promise that you’ll wear it to at least one day of the UFC Fan Expo on Friday or Saturday. (And if you see Sammie Black there with his silly little fake-ass jump rope, please make sure to make fun of him as hard as we did in Boston.)

If you can make it out, all we ask is one thing: Please RSVP by e-mailing cpbanned@breakmedia.com with your real name, commenter name (if you have one), and the number of guests you plan on bringing along. We need to get a head-count for this thing by Tuesday, or else Shoeless Joe himself is going to kick our asses. To summarize…